Areas of Expertise

Biography

Barbara Cochran, a news executive whose career includes top jobs in the broadcast, print and non-profit worlds, is the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the School of Journalism.

Cochran is based at the bureau in Washington, D.C., where she has spent her entire career. In the past, Cochran served as the CBS News Washington Bureau Chief, Executive Producer of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” NPR Vice President for News and managing editor of the Washington Star. She works with MU journalism faculty to teach and provide course content for students. Cochran also engages in programs of research, consulting and training aimed at improving the practice of journalism, and working with the Committee of Concerned Journalists and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.

Cochran has degrees from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York.